In my travels through North Carolina I was engaged by the atmospheric
country roads. The route I drove often from a friend’s house to
the country store took on different feelings depending on the time of
day and the red clay of the soil made this road take on a warmness I
had not seen elsewhere. I observed this road with awe and affection and
I became aware, as though for the first time, of shadows cast by trees
along country roads.

The heat of the Carolina’s can be intense and the cool shadows
brought an awareness of the three dimensionality of air, a cool region
very desirable. While driving, I found the shadows no longer represented
a pattern on the ground but rather a volume different from the surrounding
volume of warm air. The shadowed air itself had a shape, a cone region
of coolness.

At first the straight roads leading to a distant horizon were most intriguing;
at some point other roads with bends and twists held a promise of surprise;
at last the crossroads, offering a total change in direction, were most
inviting.

However, my affection for that first country road remained. The slow
drive to keep the dust from rising too much (not wanting to disturb the
serenity), the far off horizon and changing shadows which first made
me see the solidity and promise of trees and roads and shadows.